This is a cool photograph because when you first see it you are unsure if you are looking at an adult domestic cat killing or eating a newborn kitten (!) or a mother cat grabbing her newborn by the scruff of the neck to carry her to the den. The thing is that mothers do rarely kill their young. I have a page on this in which I discuss the reasons which you can read by clicking here.

It is hard to capture this kind of photograph as the moments are very fleeting. You just have to have the camera at the ready and be all the cat for a while to get that moment. I guess this could disturb the cat as some don’t like being photographed and in any case you want to leave a mother and her young kittens alone as she has a lot of work to do and demands peace and quiet.

Mother cat grabs her newborn kitten by the scruff of the neck. Photo (believed) by Ilya Varlamov on Flickr

HERE ARE SOME MORE PAGES ON MOTHERING:

Why do cats raise their butts when you pet them on their back?

Cats raise their bottoms to facilitate their mother's anogenital stimulation. It is a neonatal reflex action by the kitten. It's ...
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Female domestic cats cooperate to care for kittens

Although the news media are having fun with this video in describing a female domestic cat's behaviour as stealing another ...
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Is it normal for a cat to have one kitten?

I have to research this as I don't have first hand experience and my research indicates that it is normal, ...
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A nursing mother’s nipples are labelled like school lockers for her kittens

The language I've used in the title comes from that wonderful writer, Desmond Morris. He is also a great animal ...
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Domestic cat milk contains 8 times more protein and 3 times more fat than human milk

I can't really add much more than what I say in the title so this is going to be a ...
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Community cat carries kitten into A&E to be treated by doctors

NEWS/OPINION-TURKEY: The story is that a street cat, a calico cat in fact, carried her sick kitten into an Istanbul ...
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Why does Lulu the slipper cat bring slippers to her owner every day?

You may have heard of cute Lulu. She is a tabby rescue cat who likes to bring her owner's slippers ...
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What cat had the most kittens?

The question is a search term on Google i.e. not my wording, and is two questions rolled into one which ...
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